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| Monday Okpebholo (right), Adams Oshiomhole (centre) and Blessing Agbebaku at an APC campaign event on 14 August 2025. File photograph. Hackesan/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. |
The Edo State Government has defended Governor Monday Okpebholo’s pledge to secure 2.5 million votes for President Bola Tinubu in 2027, saying voter mobilisation and the administration’s performance will underpin its campaign.
Bugie Okhuemoi, the governor’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, outlined the strategy during an interview on Arise News’ The Morning Show ahead of Okpebholo’s second anniversary in office on 12 November. He also addressed questions about teacher recruitment, security and a sharp increase in the state’s domestic debt.
The electoral target would require a substantial change from Edo’s participation in the last presidential election. In 2023, voters cast 600,395 ballots, of which 581,266 were valid. Peter Obi, then the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, won the state with 331,163 votes, while Tinubu received 144,471.
Okpebholo’s proposed tally exceeds four times the total number of ballots cast across all parties in that election. It also represents about 87 per cent of the 2,865,263 registered voters in the more recent figure cited during the interview.
Arise News has separately reported that INEC put Edo’s register at 2,865,263 while continuing preparations for the release of the final national register on 15 December.
INEC’s earlier records also distinguish between the registers used for different elections. Edo had 2,501,081 registered voters for the 2023 general election; the commission subsequently increased that figure to 2,629,025 for the 2024 governorship election.
Okhuemoi rejected the suggestion that previous turnout made the governor’s pledge unattainable. He argued that “the fact that something hasn't happened before does not mean it cannot happen”, describing the figure as an ambitious target that required organised political work.
He identified three stages in the mobilisation effort: encouraging eligible residents to register, helping registered voters collect their Permanent Voters’ Cards and persuading them to participate on election day.
According to him, low participation reflects difficulties at each stage, including uncollected cards and fears about violence. The All Progressives Congress, he said, intended to address those obstacles while seeking support for its candidate.
Beyond getting voters to polling units, Okhuemoi said the administration expected its projects and public services to persuade residents to support Tinubu. He presented Okpebholo’s record as the principal basis for that appeal.
The spokesperson also defended the governor’s frequent references to the President during project launches and inaugurations. He said Okpebholo wanted residents to associate those projects with the federal support and funding available to his administration.
When the presenters raised Obi’s previous victory and continuing political appeal, Okhuemoi argued that the APC possessed stronger local organisations than its opponents. He maintained that party structures and sustained mobilisation would determine its ability to convert support into votes.
He also rejected the interpretation that Okpebholo had barred Obi from visiting Edo. In his account, the governor’s remarks sought advance notification so that the authorities could provide appropriate security and other arrangements.
Questions about the administration’s finances introduced a separate challenge to its account of performance. Debt Management Office figures show that Edo’s domestic debt rose from ₦91.18 billion at the end of December 2025 to ₦172.37 billion on 31 March 2026.
That represents an increase of approximately ₦81.19 billion, or 89 per cent, within three months.
Okhuemoi attributed the increase to a ₦100 billion financing arrangement for contractors, rather than money borrowed directly by the governor to meet capital or recurrent expenditure.
He said First Bank provided the facility, with the state government acting as guarantor following approval by the House of Assembly. Contractors, he explained, needed access to finance to execute infrastructure projects without interruptions caused by funding shortages.
The government’s guarantee meant that the arrangement appeared as an obligation against the state, he said. He maintained that the outstanding amount would reduce as contractors received payments and repaid the financing.
He summarised the distinction this way: “So it wasn't a loan taken by the governor directly.”
The state government’s published explanation of the facility, issued in June 2025, confirms that First Bank would disburse funds directly to contractors according to project requirements. It gives the arrangement a 40-month tenure and commits the government to fulfilling its guarantee obligations through agreed payments to the bank.
The DMO’s tables record the higher amount as Edo’s domestic debt. Okhuemoi did not dispute the figures during the interview, but attributed the increase to the contractor arrangement.
Edo’s own first-quarter 2026 budget implementation report also records ₦46.71 billion in domestic loan or borrowing receipts from financial institutions. The interview did not address that separate budget entry.
He said the governor had “zero tolerance for abandoned projects” and intended to ensure that funding constraints did not prevent contractors from completing work.
On education, Okhuemoi distinguished the regularisation of existing teachers from additional recruitment. He said the government had absorbed about 5,000 teachers previously engaged under the EdoSTAR programme into permanent civil service employment.
He said the administration had separately recruited approximately 1,000 teachers and planned to engage another 3,000. The proposed appointments remained a future recruitment exercise in his account.
Okhuemoi also put the number of schools renovated, remodelled or reconstructed at about 78. His figure covered several categories of work rather than 78 entirely new schools.
The presenters had requested specific outcomes against the governor’s campaign promises, including teacher appointments, school buildings and support for tertiary institutions. Okhuemoi supplied the recruitment and school figures but did not provide a figure for tertiary institution subventions.
He linked those interventions to the administration’s SHINE agenda, which covers security, healthcare, infrastructure, natural resources, education and empowerment. He said the natural resources component incorporates agriculture, energy and the extractive industries.
The spokesperson described the governor’s approach as one shaped by consultations with residents across Edo’s 192 wards. He said those engagements helped the administration identify local priorities and informed the commitments it had pursued since taking office.
On security, Okhuemoi said the government had combined discussions with leaders of groups associated with cult-related violence with stronger penalties for criminal activity. He said the administration wanted accountability to extend beyond those who carried out attacks to people who financed or otherwise supported them.
He also said the governor worked with the judiciary to establish a special court for criminal cases, arguing that lengthy proceedings could undermine enforcement.
As an example, he cited the convictions arising from the kidnapping of a woman at the Vegetable Market along Airport Road in Benin City. He said the governor intended to sign the convicts’ death warrants if they failed to appeal within the prescribed period.